How Do I know if my Son or Daughter is Consuming Drugs?

A young boy has started getting bad grades in school, he has started developing a constant bad mood rejecting his friends, not wanting to participate in sports as he regularly used to and now constantly argues for any minor reason at home. Lately he has started complaining of general body aching, his parents are confused and think the explanation is normal adolescence changes, perhaps he is a little depressed and couldn’t handle a crush in school, but their last thought would be thinking if drugs have anything to do with it… How could I know if my son/daughter has started experimenting with drugs? What are the signs that I should look for?

The first step to help anyone overcoming drug issues is identifying that there is indeed a problem. Many parents are surprised with the news of discovering a child involved on drugs, in many of those cases it is already too late. Subtle changes in conduct where taking place over time, however those were unnoticed by the parents, these are clear signs of alert in youth, which if discovered early in the game could have helped avoiding addiction or worse.

What are the Symptoms that Manifest in the Use of Drugs?

Outside of the legally known substances like Alcohol and tobacco, a person under the influence of illegal drugs (stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, etc.) show clear biological and psychological changes which can be recognized by their parents:

Biological changes: These are external signs which vary depending on the type of drug consumed, nevertheless the most common signs of drug use are:

Loss of balance giving the impression of clumsiness or instability.

Eye irritation, retina redness and dilated pupils, causing a big intolerance to bright places. Those regular consumers of drugs will have the high tendency to use dark shaded sun glasses, not only to hide the evident eye irritation but also to protect from direct sunlight exposure.

Upset stomach with lack of appetite. More than frequent vomit and nausea, with sugar rush appetite, wanting to eat sweet rather than protein food. This tendency on the long affects the individual causing a significant loss of weight.

Drugs that affect the neurological system causes the individual to experience shortness of breath with cold sweats, with a rush sensation of hot and cold flashes.

Fatigue and insomnia with prolonged periods of isolation

In those individuals with heavy drug use and marked dependency prolonged period of time without consumption causes trembling, general body aching, muscle pains, cold flashes and alterations in blood pressure. In general more than one symptom at the time can occur.

Psychological symptoms: These symptoms also can vary depending on the drug used, and specific individual psychological state associated during drug consumption or abstinence. In general these are the most important:

Swift changes in demeanor. Users can go from euphoria that contrasts with the individual’s normal character. In other situations the individual shows evasive towards relatives in the household, especially parents. In other situations the individual shows rapid anger and unexpectedly aggressive without apparent reason.

Loss of fear and complete disregard to self-safety, this normally occurs during the use of hallucinogens.

Loss of track of time and confusion.

High irritability, lack of interest in once upon a time normal activities, like sports. Development of selfish attitudes, isolation and laziness.

If there is an advance drug dependency the symptoms during periods of abstinence vary depending on every case, the most common are: lack of sleep, anxiety, irritability, lack of attention, lack of concentration.

Behavioral symptoms: Changes in pattern and behavior could be an indication to suspect the use of drugs:

An outgoing person rather recently prefers to isolate, spending long hours on its own could be a sign of a side effect of depression caused by drug use.

Changes in Schedule, getting back home at late hours, avoiding communication with parents and immediately looking for isolation in his room with excuses of having to do homework or being tired.

Sudden need to ask for more than usual money allowance, parents could start to notice disappearance of money from their purses or wallets. Normally those under regular consumption of drugs try to get any money they can fast and easy to pay for their consumption, even selling their own property to cope with it.

Total indisposition to visit a doctor for fear of being exposed to medical examination of any kind.

The most evident and clear sign of drug use is finding at home items hidden items typically used for drug consumption; like little paper roles used for sniffing, empty cigarette boxes, pipes, ashes, needles, used syringes and spoons used to heat certain drugs for consumption.

Body marks of syringes and needles in the forearm

If you have solid suspicion of drug consumption by your youth, you can get in many pharmacies an over the counter kit for drug test which can confirm if that is the case or not.

Other Considerations for Parents

The influence of class mates, friends, and even relatives can be a transcendent effect on a young person to decide trying drugs, even considering to do “just a try”, thinking that there will be no consequences. For this reason parents and guardians need to be alert in many ways.

It is a common mistake to think that children should have their own space and trust 100% in their own ability to make the right choices. In the State of Florida parents are deemed by Law to supervise the spaces of their children and it is prudent to do so. A random check on your child’s room as well as mobile devices is important and could throw significant leads on your youth’s whereabouts. This is not a disrespect of their privacy nor does it show lack of confidence but when parents understand that detecting early drug use can increase the chance of a young person to recover sooner than later, then they can be convinced that constant supervision is necessary and valuable.

For all these reasons parents should not confuse respecting your child’s space with supervision, and freedom with dependency. Youth are at the early stages of learning how to use their freedom, we cannot pretend that they are entirely self-sufficient, therefore they should expect their parents to still participate steering their lives in the right direction.

What if I find that my child has manifested all these symptoms in this article? What do I do and how can I help him overcome this problem? That will be the theme of our next article.